Quote:
Originally Posted by Muta
100% agreed. Do it properly and tunnel it. If there's not enough money, then keep saving for it.
All of downtown should have been tunneled from the start in the early 80's. Same from City Hall to Cemetery Hill. Same with the portion of the West LRT that's trenched, and has made that entire stretch of 17th Avenue dead space at grade. Yes it costs more, but pays off in spades from an urban development perspective in the long run. A similar sized and cold climate city, Sapporo, did this properly in the 70's and 80's.
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Funding for subways in North America seem to be incredibly challenging compared to other places in the world. If the LRT was tunneled in the downtown area from the start as intended, we would have a lot less distance covered in the city right now. We probably would be similar to Edmonton in just finally getting stuff outside of the general centre area.
Who knows if the LRT would've been past University and Chinook, and we would have NE line if high costs stunted rapid development. And although for the West LRT would be better if it was fully tunneled from Westbrook to the end of the line, the costs would be so astronomical that it wouldn't exist still.
Compromises in design that at least accomplishes the goal of the project is acceptable if the results will come.